Three Tokens for the Leaders of Tomorrow

Good morning,

Something you might not know about me is that I am somewhat of a gamer.

One of my favorite childhood memories is going to the arcade during family trips to the mall. My mom would give my brother and I R50 each to spend. Once it was cashed in for arcade tokens, you felt like a millionaire.

With tokens in hand, the only question was which games you would choose to play. And, of course, it always started with a sweep of the arcade to see which new games were available.

New games meant better graphics and gameplay. They also usually required more tokens.

You might already see where I am going with this.

There is a new game being played.

A game initiated by the introduction of AI, accelerated by technology, complicated by politics, and made more complex by the interconnectedness of it all.

That's my way of saying, change has never felt so overwhelming yet held so much promise and potential.

But, to play this new game, you are required to pay 3 tokens.

Token 1: The courage to be a beginner again. To stand at the controls of something new, knowing you'll make mistakes, fail publicly, and learn messily. But remembering that every expert was once a novice who kept playing.

Token 2: The wisdom to stop defending your high scores from yesterday's games. Those achievements got you here, but clinging to them won't help you master what's next.

Token 3: The emotional bandwidth for growth. Because learning new games isn't just about skill - it's about managing the frustration, the uncertainty, and yes, even the fear that comes with change. It's about staying steady when everything around you feels like it's moving at light speed.

Here's something that I want to let you in on.

Something that gamers know that others might not.

You play games not only for the love of games, but for the love of playing.

For the love of the challenge.

Yes, we all have our favourites. But we also know that each game has its time. And when that time is done, it's relegated to the classics section. The section you dip into for some nostalgia fuel.

But this doesn't stop us from playing new games.

Because it's not about the games.

It's about the playing.

So, keep playing.

Erik